A new report recommends Britain has a Plan B

Professor Mariana Mazzucato

Professor Mariana Mazzucato, Professor of the Economics of Innovation at The Open University, has been involved in a report, published today (31 October 2011), to rival the economic Plan A of George Osborne.

The group Compass, chaired by Neal Lawson, has set out proposals for the future of the British economy in a report titled Plan B. The report challenges the government’s Plan A which focuses on deep austerity measures and presents the only viable economy of the future as a green economy. This is not only due to climate change but environmental limits are already impacting on the economy for example pushing up energy and food prices.

Professor Mazzucato provided expert insight to the key question about the future of UK industrial policy as a result of her working onto the Entrepreneurial State for DEMOS (http://www.demos.co.uk/publications/theentrepreneurialstate).

Following Professor Mazzucato’s recommendations Plan B includes a vision for the State to take a leading role in radical innovation, including the idea of revamping the UK government’s Small Business Research Initiative scheme and reforming and expanding the Technology Strategy Board to mirror that of the US Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) model.